These programs dissect craft, technique, and provide engrossing behindthe- scenes insights into the creative processes and personalities involved. “People want to know what’s going on,” said Jan Moran, CEO of Crescent House Publishing, a panelist at the American Society of Perfumer’s 54th Annual Fragrance Symposium. “This is why reality shows are so popular.”
What are we to understand, then, from the absence of a perfumer reality show? As moderator and perfumer Jim Krivda put it: Are perfumers important to the public?
“To appreciate a perfumer I think you need to appreciate the art of how fragrance is made,” said Ann Gottlieb, president of Ann Gottlieb Associates. “It’s something we [in the United States] need to do better. I think it would help us out of the doldrums we’re in as a market to a degree.” In the United States, Gottlieb added, marketers have not taken great strides to merchandize perfumers. Conversely, in Europe the perfumer is so important that many marketers show more interest in the formulators than the house doing the development.